Oscars 2012: George Clooney responded to the call for the Academy to be made
more diverse at the Oscars last night.

George Clooney has agreed with calls to make the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences more diverse.

On the red carpet, the star of The Descendants said it was important to give the Academy a shake-up, after a study last week revealed that members of the Academy, who vote for the Oscars, are 94 per cent white and 77 per cent male.

Talking at the 84th Academy Awards, Clooney said: "That would be a good idea, don’t you think? I think it represents directors in Hollywood, as well. It's not just Hollywood [that is not representative]. You can look at the senate and it's roughly the same thing. I don't think to diversify is ever a bad idea."

In the past, less than four per cent of awards have been won by African Americans and only one award has been given to a female director – Kathryn Bigelow last year for her film The Hurt Locker.

Clooney, who is also an Academy member, said: "It's a tricky thing. I think you'd have to open it up to more, as opposed to trying to kick people out. Instead of taking their cards away."

Related Articles

The actor also predicted that it would be a "pretty big French night" in LA at the ceremony.

Last week the LA Times revealed the profiles of 5,112 of the guild's 5,765 voters. Their average age is 62 while only 14 per cent of the members are under 50 while only two per cent are black, less than two per cent are Latino, and 15 branches of the Academy are made up of white males.

This year's Oscars saw an African American win the Oscar for Best Actress – Octavia Spencer for The Help, while Mexican actor Demian Bichir was nominated for Best Actor in A Better Life.

Clooney's comments came in the same night that Billy Crystal shocked viewers by portraying Sammy Davis Jr by blacking up. Despite having portrayed the actor in a similar fashion on Saturday Night Live the joke fell flat at the Oscars.

Crystal also courted controversy by saying: "After I saw The Help I just wanted to hug the first black woman I saw, which from Beverly Hills is about a 45 minute drive."

One Twitter user said: "That Billy Crystal joke about wanting to hug the first black woman he saw is EXACTLY why I refuse to support it."

The French film The Artist was the runaway winner of the night, taking home the Best Picture Oscar and Oscars for its director Michel Hazanavicius and leading actor Jean Dujardin.